Newsletter

Please meet: Mark Callaway

Mark Callaway works as a switchboard operator in the emergency room waiting area at Effingham Hospital.

SPRINGFIELD - Mark Callaway is a deacon, a chaplain, a switchboard operator, a husband and father of three daughters. Once you meet him, you'd find it hard to believe that he used to be shy.

A large portion of Callaway's responsibilities require that he be personable and outgoing. That hasn't always been easy for Callaway, but he said in order to make people, and himself, feel more comfortable, he's come up with a military-inspired strategy.

After serving in the Navy for five years, he knew a little something about how he did, and did not, want to be treated.

"I hated being called Callaway," he said. "I promised myself, I would always make a point to call people by their first name. You just get better service."

Mark, as he prefers to be called, now applies this approach at Effingham Hospital, where he works as a switchboard operator in the emergency room waiting area and a carrier in the afternoons, transporting radiology equipment and lab work to other hospitals.

Ginger Kieffer, the cardiac rehabilitation nurse at the hospital, said the exercise room faces the parking lot and she's seen Mark go above and beyond the line of duty firsthand.

"He does assist wheelchair patients, even picking them up and placing them in their vehicle," Kieffer said. "My patients comment on how pleasant he is when they come in through the waiting room ... Mark is a caring person and is definitely an asset to Effingham Hospital."

Mark said it's all just part of helping out, and that serving is his job. "That's what we're supposed to be doing, we're serving," he said. "I love making people feel good. I break the barrier by saying I care about you."

Six years ago, Mark had a hip replacement, which he said has helped him identify with the patients coming through the ER. He said the uncertainties were the scariest part of the surgery, and when he sees the same fear in patients, he's able to say, "Look, I went through it. It wasn't easy, but here I am."

In January, Mark will have been employed at the hospital for two years. His favorite part of the job is making people feel welcomed and less distressed. He said we should be spending more time with each other, really looking into caring about others and their problems.

"We live our lives from our workplace to home, then back to work," he said. "We don't even know our neighbors. We need to take more time."

Mark said he's seen and dealt with all kinds of people at the hospital, and that nothing could have prepared him for his position at the hospital like his experiences at the Truckstop Ministries.

For three years, Mark has been a chaplain at Truckstop Ministries, a church service based in Jackson, Ga., providing church services for truck drivers when they're on the road. The ministry has about 68 chapels in 29 different states, according to Mark. He said it was this experience that helped him "face his fears."

Before working at the Truckstop Ministries, Mark said, "I couldn't talk to anybody ... I was scared," he said. "You don't know what kind of people you're going to meet. You stereotype people but you meet some nice people. You see a person with tattoos and earrings and you say that person is off-limits, but you learn quick that that's not true. I call it conquering fears."

Mark said that conquering this fear made him realize he wasn't being active in life, living in fear of what other people thought of him. He said he hopes everyone can conquer this fear by at least the time they get out of high school, where he believes such concerns are most prevalent.